An inadvertent elbow from guard Chris Paul hit the Spurs point guard just above the right elbow in Thursday’s game against the Clippers, but Parker stayed mum about how sore he was even after warming up and discovering his perimeter shot was affected by the pain.

“He was a little too much in hero mode,” Popovich said. “He really wasn’t forthcoming. We didn’t realize it until about halfway through the game when he didn’t shoot any (perimeter) shots. I would have sat him in that game, and that’s definitely why we’re sitting him tonight.”

The good news for Spurs fans is that Parker expects to return to the court Wednesday. This isn’t a long-term thing.

Parker is averaging 21.1 points a game on 53.6 percent shooting, he’s hitting 37.9 percent of his threes and he’s averaging 7.6 assists per game, too. He has a PER of 24.6. He deserves to be in the MVP conversation — third in the conversation, but in it.

I think PER is a solid snapshot stat — if you see a guy with a higher or lower than expected PER it can get your attention and have you look at as to why that is. It’s not a stat that has use for a scout, but for a fan or writer looking for just a snapshot it has value.